15 July 2002

“Last night on television and again this morning the Labour Party, which has become increasingly indignant about the Greens’ GE attack, launched their own attack on New Zealand First. We can expect much more of this over the next two weeks,” New Zealand First Leader Winston Peters said.

“Mr Goff fired the first shots when he claimed that violent crime had increased when New Zealand First was in government (from December 1996 to August 1998).

“His assertion flies in the face of all known facts. In our first budget we considerably added to police personnel and resources. Goff presented a table showing the number of homicides and murders per year. These are statistics that are assembled WHEN the crime has been investigated and charges laid. When Mr Goff made his claim he knew from the statistics that he was waving about that it was simply not true,” Mr Peters said.

“The 1997 statistics are assessed from events which take a year or more to come to trial – the very reason Mr Goff gave during the debate in defence of the need for bail.

The relevant figures are:
Murders Homicides TOTAL
1997 66 85 151
1998 53 46 99
1999 50 49 99

“What he should have been telling New Zealanders was that these violent crimes fell by a third after New Zealand First got into government (see 1998, 1999).

“In short, Mr Goff is either dumb and can’t read figures, or he is deliberately engaging in outright deception for the sole purpose of trying to get Labour elected on its own.

“Labour’s President confirmed the latter tactic this morning when he alluded to the fact that their polling was showing they were losing votes to New Zealand First.

“What we have is a picture of a Labour Party in panic mode. Their dream of ruling alone has been shattered by their obfuscatory treatment of the teachers, by their back-footing and side-stepping on GE, by their belated attempts to paper over a crisis in health funding, and by their petulance on all things.

“New Zealanders should be prepared for more of these scare tactics from Labour,” Mr Peters said.

ENDS

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